JRR Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' was named the "best loved novel of all time" in BBC's The Big Read poll.
The epic novel took almost one-quarter of the votes from the final shortlist of five books.
Other books in the top five were Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice'; Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy; 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' by Douglas Adams and JK Rowlings' fourth book, 'Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire'.
The BBC search began in April when nearly 140,0000 people nominated their favourite work of fiction to form a top 100 list.
'Return of the King', the final instalment in Peter Jackson's film trilogy based on 'Lord of the Rings' , will open in Ireland this Wednesday, 17 December.
